Portland observer., May 25, 1983, Page 18, Image 18

Pag« 0 Section II Portland Observer, May 25, 1983
100 years of labor struggle
(Continued fro m Section I I Page 5/
Lawrence darted when the mill owners, responding to a state legislature
action reducing the work week from 54 to 52, coldly and without prior
notice cut the pay rates by a 3W percent. The move produced predictable
results: a strike of 50,000 textile workers; arrests; fiery statements by the
IW W leaders; police and militia attacks on peaceful meetings; and broad
public support for the strikers. Some 400 children o f strikers were
“ adopted” by sympathizers. When women strikers and their children were
attacked at the railroad station by the police after authorities had decided
no more youngsters could leave town, an enraged public protest finally
forced the mill owners not only to restore the pay cuts but to increase the
workers’ wages to more realistic levels.
Yet not all of the news was of strike and struggle By 1904, the AFL could
claim a membership in its affiliated unions of nearly 1,700,000 members.
Ten years later, at the eve o f W orld W ar I, it had climbed to about 2
million.
There were, furtherm ore, im portant legislative accomplishments.
Congress, at the urging of the A FL , created a separate U.S. Department of
Labor with a legislative mandate to protect and extend the rights of wage
earners. A Children’s Bureau, with a major concern to protect the victims
o f job exploitation, was created. The LaFollette Seaman’s Act required
urgently needed improvements in the working conditions on ships of the
U.S. merchant marine. O f crucial importance, the Clayton Act of 1914
made explicit the legal concept that "the labor of a human being is not a
commodity or article of commetce” and hence not subject to the kind of
Sherman Act provisions which had been the issue in the Danbury Hatters
case. The act gave a legal basis in the federal jurisdiction to strikes and
boycotts and peaceful picketing, and dramatically limited the use of injunc­
tions in labor disputes.
The Adamson Act, passed by Congress in 1916 concerning work hours on
the railroads, was an important milestone in the decades-long effort to
achieve the 8-hour day, an objective of the Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions in 1884 and of many subsequent strikes. The 10-hour day
— an improvement in its era — was introduced for federal government
employees in 1840, but it took until the early years o f the 20th century
before the 8-hour work day became broadly accepted in the private sector,
particularly in the printing and building trades. The mass production
industries and the railroads continued their refusal to grant it.
Wartime gains and post-war challangas
When the United Slates entered W orld W ar I in A pril 1917, the A F L
under President Gompers’ leadership worked in close cooperation with
President Wilson to ensure industrial peace and a steady flow of military
equipment and armaments for the American Expeditionary Force in
Europe As head of the W ar Committee on Labor and members o f the
Council for National Defense. Gompers and the unions he represented
played an increasingly im portant role in national a ffa irs . A wartim e
disputes board helped avoid strikes and maintain production; it had the
support and cooperation of the labor movement. With the vast expansion
of production for military and civilian needs, unions grew rapidly during
the wartime years.
During the years following World War I. however, the labor movement
suffered setbacks and difficulties.
While AFL membership had reached almost 4 million by 1919. the post­
war reaction from employers and their allies was swift and predictable.
Elbert Gary, head of U.S. Steel (the company bestowed his name on the
Indiana city), refused to meet with striking workers. The AFL endorsed and
supported a strike of steel workers committed to such objectives as the end
of the 12-hour day. the dismantlement o f company-dominated "unions,”
collective bargaining and wage increases. Using massive propaganda which
sought to depict the strike as “ unpatriotic," plus such time-tested favorites
as strikebreakers, spies, armed guards and cooperative police departments.
"Big Steel" finally wore down the strikers, and they were forced to return
to work early in 1920 under the old conditions.
The postwar depression brought wages down sharply and caused major
erosion of union membership — a loss of about a million members in the
years from 1920 to 1923. The difficulties were multiplied by the decision of
the National Association of Manufacturers and other anti-union "open
shop’ ’ groups to wipe out or seriously diminish the status of American
unions. The fear of "Bolsheviks,” often hysterical, that was nurtured by
the Russian communist revolution was used gleefully by the anti-union
forces. As early as 1913. President John Kirby of the N A M had decided the
trade union movement was "an un-American, illegal and infamous con­
spiracy.” As the Senate Civil Liberties Committee, headed by Sen. Robert
LaFollette Jr., reported years later, such demands as "union recognition,
shorter hours, higher wages, regulation o f child labor and the hours and
wages of women and children in industry” came to be seen — under the
influence of the NAM-sponsored ’ American Plan’ — as aspects of the
alleged communist revolution from which the anti-labor employers wanted
Woman workers ware faaturad In the 1912 Labor Day parada aa they fought
sweetshop conditions in Naw York's garment district. ILsft)
Triangla Fira tragady of 1911 brought public attention to working conditions.
(Lower right)
to save the nation. Strikebreaking, blacklisting and vigilanteeism became,
for a time acceptable aspects of this new and spurious brand of patriotism.
The "yellow dog contract,” which workers had to sign in order to get a
job, bound them never to join a union; at (he same time, the corporations
promoted employee representation plans or company unions — pale and
generally useless imitations of the real thing.
Dapraaaion. war and a labor achlam healed
December 1931 — the 50th anniversary of the creation o f the modern
labor movement — found America and much of the world sliding down the
much sleeper slope o f a cataclysmic economic depression. Business
enterprises failed by the thousands, production plummeted, unemployment
went through the roof. By 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected
President, the American economy was in chaos — and the American trade
union movement was but a ghost of its former strength and numbers.
Roosevelt, taking the leadership of the all but paralyzed nation on March
4, 1933, undertook a number o f programs designed to recharge the
economy, feed the unemployed and restore confidence. A t his urging.
Congress passed the National Recovery Administration; the N R A ’s Section
7a specifically placed on the statute books the right of unions to exist and to
negotiate with employers. Although it had no real enforcement powers.
Section 7a was seen by millions of workers as a green light — if not a gov­
ernment invitation — to join a union.
The Supreme Court soon declared NRA unconstitutional, and Section 7a
was no more. Under the leadership of Senator Robert F. Wagner of New
York, Congress in 1936 enacted the National Labor Relations Act — known
as the Wagner A ct. It went beyond " 7 a ” to establish a legal basis for
unions; set collective bargaining as a matter of national policy required by
the law; provided for secret ballot elections for the choosing of unions; and
protected union members from employer intimidation and coercion. That
law, as amended in 1947 by the T a ft-H a rtle y Act and in 1959 by the
Landrum Griffin Act, is still in force.
The surge in union membership in the early years o f the New Deal, and
the potential for organizing the important non-union mass production
industries like steel, automobile, rubber, textile and others, led directly to
the most serious schism in the history o f the modern labor movement.
Heads o f a number of the industrial unions in (he A F L , led by John L.
Lewis of the Mine Workers, called upon the AFL to finance and support big
organizing campaigns in the non-union industries on a basis that all the
workers in each industry would belong to one industrial, or "vertical,”
union. Most of the leaders of the A FL unions presided over craft, or “ hori­
zontal unions, and they maintained that employees of the same skills or
crafts in the unorganized industries should sooner or later belong to their
organizations.
In November 1935, Lewis announced the creation o f the C IO — the
Committee for Industrial Organization — composed of about a dozen
leaders of A FL unions, to carry on the effort for industrial unionism. In
1938 the C IO held its first constitutional convention and became the
Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The C IO began a remarkably successful series of organizing campaigns
— and in rapid succession, over the next few years, brought industrial
unionism to large sectors o f basic American industry. A fter U .S. Steel
signed with the C IO Steel Workers in the spring of 1937, major organizing
efforts brought, during the next few years, first signed agreements — most
frequently after strike action — with major corporations in the steel, auto,
rubber, glass, maritime, meat packing and other mass production indus­
tries. At the same time the unions remaining in the A FL registered even
more substantial gains in membership.
The growth in union strength of both the A FL and C IO throughout the
period, coupled with Roosevelt's domestic program, led to passage o f a
number of national social programs long advocated by the labor movement:
among them, the national social security program, unemployment compen­
sation, workers' compensation, and a federal minimum wage-hour law (the
original minimum hourly pay set by the 1938 statute was 25 cents an hour).
During World War II . the A FL and C IO , while preserving areas of dis­
agreement, began to find more substantial bases for working together on
problems affecting all workers. They were reunited into the A F L -C IO at a
convention in New York opening on Dec. 5, 1955.
George Meany was unanimously elected president of the merged labor
federation, and a new chapter opened for the American labor movement.
Tha AFL-CIO years
George Meany’s commitment to "the traditional objectives o f the labor
movement” was expanded in his role as A F L -C IO president, to include
labor's "fu ll contribution to the welfare of our neighbors, to the communi­
ties in which we live, and to the nation as a whole.”
A major phenomenon of this period was the rapid growth of unions of
government employees — federal, state and local. For many decades, postal
employees, teachers, the fire fighters, and building and metal trades
(Please turn to Section II Page 7J
REWARD YOURSELF WITH CONFIDENCE
Solid foundations help support what
we build Whether a house, a protect
— or a life One ot the surest tounda
tions is confidence And Shan Ichida-
Busse has it
An early hunch that led to her first job.
at WGN Chicago also opened the
door to the career she maintains today
Once |ust on the ground floor of Traffic
Operations tor the Illinois station Shari
now oversees an entire department as
Trathc Manager for KPTV The confi­
dence that grew with her is well-
earned It also had to be learned
Lessons could be found from home,
and trom honest sell-assessrnent On
the one hand. Shari recognized the
example of her parents Though both
second-generation Pacific North-
westerners. they were interred m the
American concentration camps that
sprang up after the bombing ol Pearl
Harbor Determined Io put the experi­
ence behind them, they relocated after
the war and raised their family with
values to depend on such as perse­
verance and respect for life
For her part. Shan moved gradually
through the ranks of her business spe­
cialty becoming familiar with all its as­
pects The desire tor a fresher more
hospitable environment impelled her
to seek work m Portland where she
and her husband then moved Her will­
ingness m Chicago to master the new
computer-based Broadcast Industry
Automation System - now standard in
the business — enabled Shari to trans­
fer her abilities to TV-12 Patience with
much to be learned again proved
worthwhile as she garnered further
experience necessary tor her present
position
Alter so much effort. Shari is comforta­
ble with her proficiency, but not surpris­
ingly. she still pays close attention to
what is before her Keeping her staff
motivated Upholding organization
Handling the turnover of technical
data These are simply par for the ex­
pectations she sets and upgrades In
her view "You ve got to take pride in
what you do. no matter w h a t' That
means, "overcome the past, rise
above it. and strive to be better" Shari
also senses the importance of educa­
tion, formal and informal "If you don t
have guidance, find it from someone
who knows With such a blueprint, el-
torts are rewarding, and confidence is
inevitable
Whether or not your training is
broadcast-related, the skills you
take pride m might be applicable to
a television career To learn more
about such possibilities, consult the
KPTV Personnel Department
ivQ2